Harsh Criticism of F.B.I. In Review of Cult Assault

By STEPHEN LABATON,

Published: November 16, 1993

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15—
A Harvard professor retained by the Justice Department to review the Government's tear gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Tex., said today that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had helped drive cult members to mass suicide and then misled officials in the review that followed.

Contradicting the official review of the operation published last month by the Justice Department, the professor, Dr. Alan Stone, said the Government bore some blame for the deaths of 75 people, including 25 children, in the assault on April 19 that ended a 51-day standoff outside the cult's compound.

Dr. Stone is an authority on violence who teaches psychiatry and the law and sits on the faculties of the medical and law schools at Harvard. He said that although there was no intentional misconduct, F.B.I. officials who were making decisions during the standoff had ignored their own behaviorial experts and instead "embarked on a misguided and punishing law-enforcement strategy that contributed to the tragic ending at Waco." Image of Cult Leader

To justify the operation, Dr. Stone said, the bureau misled the officials conducting the review of the raid about the F.B.I.'s original behaviorial assessments of the cult's leader, David Koresh. Those assessments said Mr. Koresh was a religious fanatic who was likely to fulfill his apocalyptic vision. Instead, the F.B.I. characticized the assessments to the reviewers as having depicted Mr. Koresh as a petty con artist who would not be likely to commit suicide.

Dr. Stone also said there were "serious unanswered questions" about why Attorney General Janet Reno thought it would be safe to use tear gas "in a closed space where there were 25 children, many of them toddlers and infants."

"It is difficult to understand why a person whose primary concern was the safety of the children would agree to the F.B.I.'s plan," he said, referring to Ms. Reno's approval of the April 19 tear gas assault that ended when the cult's compound caught fire and burned in less than an hour.

Ms. Reno ordered the assault to endthe standoff between the cult and the F.B.I. that began on Feb. 28, when Federal agents tried to serve the cult and Mr. Koresh with a search warrant for possible violations of Federal firearms laws. Four Federal agents and at least six cult members died that day in a shootout. Three Options

Dr. Stone said it was clear that in recommending the April assault to Ms. Reno, senior F.B.I. officials had discounted the advice of the behavioral experts at the scene. "By the time the A.G. made her decision," he wrote, "the noose was closed, and, as one agent told me, the F.B.I. believed they had 'three options -- gas, gas and gas.' "

Officials at the Justice Department said Ms. Reno would have no comment on the report. The F.B.I. today released a statement defending its actions and disputing the contention that it had contributed to the suicides.

"What the F.B.I. sought was no more loss of life," the unsigned statement said, "and it negotiated for nearly two months for a peaceful solution."

Dr. Stone was one of 10 unpaid experts picked by the Government to review the standoff and the April assault. None of the others were critical of Ms. Reno or suggested that the F.B.I. had contributed to mass suicide, although a few said that the advice of the behaviorial experts was mistakenly discounted by senior officials.

Dr. Stone's report is the first official criticism of Attorney General Reno's handling of the affair.